Hi how was your Easter? Mine was good- I served in the host team for our church’s production and then just did some cleaning of my clothes and house. I didn’t go away as the traffic is not good at this time of the year and I don’t want to sit in a traffic jam.
Last time I wrote on ” from triumph to tragedy”. That was the story from Palm Sunday to the crucifixion of Jesus. Now I want to tell the next part of that story. The first story took around five days. The next part of the story takes three days.
We ended the last story where the people had just condemned Jesus to die. What takes place then is awful and I can’t bear to watch the portrayal of it. Jesus was delivered to the ones who wanted Him to die. He carried His cross until it was too hard to bear then someone else carried it. They then nailed Him to the cross and watched and waited until He had died. But this was no ordinary crucifixion. One criminal who was hanging beside Jesus was saved, it became dark from 3 to 6 in the afternoon, the thick veil of the temple was torn in two and then Jesus gave up His Spirit and descended into hell because all of our sin came upon Him.
Jesus gave up His life for you and I. Our sentence was the cross but our cross wasn’t wooden- it was eternity separated from God and everything good – sentenced to a place of bad and everything bad – where isolation and loneliness and pain occurs in greater measures than we have ever experienced. That was our cross – our place of paying for our disobedience to creator God. But triumph was coming!!!
Three days later Jesus rose again – He had conquered hell, death and fear. How? By going to hell for us. He preached to all those down there and gave them an opportunity to receive what He had done for them. What mercy and what grace! After that, Jesus took the keys of hell and death (including fear). What do keys do? They either open or shut. In this case they shut the door on those things having control of our lives, but only if we trust in Jesus. Jesus took our sins, our shame, our sickness (both physical and mental) and has given us the opportunity to know Him and to live free.
That’s the triumph of the cross – the reason we celebrate Easter. The good news that Jesus came to die for you and rose again so that you could be free. If you want to know Jesus personally, please pray the prayer under “Want to know Jesus” on the front page of this blog and let me know so I can rejoice with you.
This Easter let’s take everything into our lives that Jesus came to give. That is the way that you will keep living the life God intended for you. Bless you heaps
Karen
Living the life God intended 